Russia’s foreign ministry said the claims were a “heap of conspiracy schemes” intended to “damage the atmosphere” before Monday’s summit.

It said there was no evidence linking any of the dozen officials to hacking or military intelligence.

But US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein insisted that “the goal of the conspirators was to have an impact on the election.”

What are the allegations?

The 11-count indictment names the Russians defendants, alleging they began cyber-attacks in March 2016 on the email accounts of staff for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

They are accused of using keystroke reading software to spy on the chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and hack into the party’s computers.

Mr Rosenstein said the conspirators used fictitious online personas, including “DCLeaks” and “Guccifer 2.0”, to release thousands of stolen emails.

They are also accused of stealing the data of half a million voters from a state election board website.

What has the reaction been?

During a joint news conference with UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday, Mr Trump said he would “absolutely” ask the Russian president about alleged election meddling.

But top Democrats have urged him to cancel the planned summit altogether following the indictment.

“President Trump should absolutely cancel this meeting with Putin on Monday,” said DNC chairman Tom Perez. “He is not a friend of the United States.”

“President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin until Russia takes demonstrable and transparent steps to prove that they won’t interfere in future elections,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

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